


Darkness and Light

by MBlair



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Off-screen Character Death, The Last Jedi - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22760227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MBlair/pseuds/MBlair
Summary: “Did you do it? Did you try to murder him?”In the storms of Ahch-To, discoveries are made and questions are asked. The fate of the galaxy depends on the answer.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The first of three versions of the fateful scene from The Last Jedi are here! 
> 
> Chapter One: Rey’s POV  
> Chapter Two: Ben’s POV  
> Chapter Three: Alternate Universe — A little help from a friend.
> 
> All familiar passages come from the novelization of The Last Jedi by Jason Fry. All rights belong to the author as well as Disney/Lucasfilm.

Rey stood as the stone hut that had previously been safe shelter now blown to pieces around her, the Force singing around them as sharp and dangerous as the lightning that flashed in the storm around them. 

“Is it true? Did you try to murder him?” 

Luke turned to walk away, dismissing her questions as thoroughly as he had when she first asked him to train her, begged him to help her continue the Jedi legacy. It was at that moment that she knew, he was right. The Jedi needed to die, if it meant murdering innocent children, murdering  _ family _ for even having an inkling of the dark side within them. If Ben could be so misunderstood, would she be next? When would she wake to find Luke Skywalker ready to end her life?

“Leave this island,” Luke replied through gritted teeth, all evidence of hope or longing to return home now gone from his face and heart. His mind was made up. There was no turning back. “Now.” 

“No. Stop,” Rey commanded, snatching up her staff and bashing Luke hard across the head, knocking him hard to the ground. 

Luke turned around to face her, stunned into silence, watching the previously seemingly kind and gentle young woman turn feral and fierce. There was much more darkness in her than he ever felt before, the same veins infecting her light, willing her to fall to the dark side just as it did for Ben. 

“Did you do it,” Rey asked. “Did you create Kylo Ren?” 

When Luke got to his feet again, Rey knew that nothing had changed. None of her questions would be answered. He would walk away from her, just as he did when she arrived on the island. Furious, Rey swung her staff at him again, determined to get the answers she needed from him by any means necessary, even if it meant harming the only man who knew them, one of the last remaining friends of the lone Wookiee waiting patiently for them down by the Falcon and the brother of the woman, the General, she respected so much. 

Luke reached out with the Force, the power he had cut himself from for so long responding as if he always had it, a length of lightning rod detaching itself from a hut nearby and soaring into his hand. Before she could blink, he had intercepted the strike of her staff, the impact sending her back a step, but it was enough. 

It was only a moment before Rey sprang back at him, her staff and his own improvised weapon spinning and colliding in a blur as they moved, the rain bouncing off and the lightning strikes coming closer. The staff had never felt more comfortable than at this moment, more an extension of herself than the Force had ever been. When she pressed the attack further, her youth and undeniable strength further pressing him back toward the remaining huts, the surprise and subtle nerves began to show on his face. 

The moment faded as quickly as it had become evident however as Luke parried her thrust and flipped her staff out of hand, sending it flying out of sight. 

“Leave this island. Now,” Luke repeated, pushing her back with the Force until she felt the hard, slick stone under her. Though it was a push, it wasn’t nearly as hard as it could have been, either by the Force or her own body, she was laid to rest as gently as possible against the ground. 

Rey reached out, feeling the Force alive and hungry around her, she found the very lightsaber that she had called for in her hands. Standing quickly, she lit it and approached, knocking him to the ground much as he had done to her, standing above him so the saber lit his face. 

They looked at each other for a long moment before Rey turned the lightsaber off. 

“Tell me the truth.” 

Rey closed her eyes as she felt the push into her mind, memories of the dark night Kylo had already shown her beginning to play again. 

* * *

_ Luke Skywalker looks down at his nephew Ben Solo -- no longer a boy but not yet a man. He has come into his chambers, long after Ben had fallen asleep, lost in the world of dreams, and now stands over him. He is lost in the wild clash of opposing forces, the light side desperately holding back the veins of darkness that had always existed in this boy. His sister’s son.  _

_ Worry shadows Luke’s face as he extends his hand, reaching out with the Force -- reaching into his sleeping nephew’s mind.  _

_ Ben remains still, his face untroubled despite the unwelcome intrusion, and Luke’s eyes remain shut. But he can see: fire and ruin, the sightless eyes of the dead. And he can hear: screams, the howl of lightsabers, and the roar of explosions. The death and destruction of everything he had given his life to protect. The Republic, the galaxy, their family.  _

_ The darkness expanding from this boy, a young man he loved more than life itself, and the future that would accompany it if left unchecked was a terror that Luke could not abide. As much as he loved Ben, he could not, he would not allow him to be unleashed upon a defenseless galaxy.  _

_ Luke pulled himself back, reaching down for the lightsaber in his belt and igniting the blade. The moment of determination only lasts for a second, however, for when he looks back down at Ben again, he remembers. He cannot bring his lightsaber down on his nephew, his sister’s son, while he sleeps.  _

_ And immediately he knows it is too late, there is no going back. Ben’s eyes are open, frightened but aware.  _

_ He knows what Luke thought. _

_ He knows what Luke saw.  _

_ He knows what could be. What now will be.  _

_ Desperate, Ben’s hand reached out, not toward Luke but toward the lightsaber that he had constructed. Willing it into his hand, its blue blade lights and moves into a position to defend himself, to strike his uncle down before being killed himself. Luke’s own blade meets Ben’s and the locked sabers buzz and spark. Seeing that it was a stalemate, Ben reaches up toward the ceiling with his free hand, bringing the stones down on Luke’s head.  _

* * *

Rey took a step back as she returned to the present, the driving rain and wind soaking through her clothes. She looked down at Luke Skywalker, the legend that had turned on his own family, who was ready to kill to protect the galaxy from a threat that did not exist. 

Now it did. 

Seeing now the man before her, she could find only pity. Not anger, not the rush of darkness that screamed to take revenge, but sympathy. She knew he regretted his decision. 

“You failed him by thinking his choice was made. That he had already fallen to the darkness you sensed in him,” she said, her voice equal parts gentle and insistent. “It wasn’t. There is still good in him, still light in him. If he could be turned back from the dark side, this could shift the tide. This could be how we finally win.” 

Luke shook his head, unable to believe that anything could turn Ben back now. “This is not going to go the way you think,” he warned. 

“It is. Just now, when we touched hands, I could see his future. I could see what could be if we  _ fought _ for it. If someone showed him that it wasn’t too late, that he could still come home. If I go to him, Ben Solo will turn.” 

“Rey, don’t do this,” Luke said. “Don’t lose yourself to the dark, to Kylo Ren.” 

Rey’s answer was to hold the lightsaber out to him once more, willing him now to take it and join her. To begin atoning for his mistakes and help bring the galaxy back from the brink of destruction. 

She knew, as soon as his eyes turned away, that he would not accept it. 

“Then, he’s our last hope.”


	2. Chapter Two - Ben's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to chapter two! I actually managed to get something down for this, so I'm hoping it makes as much sense to you (or perhaps even more) than it does to me. 
> 
> This chapter is in Ben's POV, starting a little bit earlier than the previous chapter. In this one though, there's a bit of a possible canon-divergence. I wrote out a bit of what I think that Ben saw in the "visions" that they briefly touch on in the film, but it doesn't at all mean it's gospel. In fact, I'm pretty sure this isn't what Ben actually saw. Oh well. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“You’re not alone,” Kylo insisted, wishing and hoping with all his might that she would believe him, that she wouldn’t fall into the same inky darkness that he had. The dark that came from loneliness, from being forgotten by those that were meant to love you most in this life. He watched her intently, letting out an internal sigh of relief when she seemed to accept it, though her response was something he never expected. 

“Neither are you,” she said, only taking a brief pause to breathe before continuing. “It’s not too late.” 

Kylo wanted desperately to turn away, to insist to her that it  _ was _ too late, that he was too far gone to ever think of returning home. He had done too much, ruined too many lives to be cared for, to be loved. The voice ever-present in his head only reenforcing that idea, whispering and cajoling him into further darkness. 

_ You’re not enough. You’ve never been enough. Why do you think you could ever deserve her?  _

He was pulled out of his self-loathing reverie to a soft touch from the Force, guiding him back to the present. He watched as Rey tentatively raised her hand toward his, moving it from the warmth of her blanket toward the hot fire between them. Removing his glove, he hesitated for a moment before moving it toward hers, unsure of what would happen if they touched. Would it be as if she were really there, touching skin to skin? Or would it all be an illusion, the warmth of the fire on his face only a product of his overactive imagination? 

The answer came within moments, their fingers touching, making them both gasp. The Force was electric around them, buzzing and sparking, almost as this was meant to occur. That this moment was what they had both spent their lives waiting for. 

* * * 

_ The visions came fast and bright, almost as if his life was flashing before his eyes. Many places and times passed him by, deserts, forests, bright blue water. Dreams of flying across the galaxy and seeing everything, anything but the desolation of the desert. Ben closed his eyes for a moment to try and stop the onslaught, but it continued even once he opened them again. It was clear that this was something new, something different.  _

_ It was her.  _

_ “No! No, come back,” the little girl before him cried out as a ship flew away, leaving her behind on the desolate desert world. Her three bun style and pure white clothing only reinforced the fact that this was her memory, more than likely the worst day of her life. The day her parents left her behind.  _

_ The creature that held her arm back gripped it tighter, pulling her back further as the ship rose. “Quiet, girl,” it growled, pulling her back again before she could break away.  _

_ Rey continued to scream and cry as the ship lifted higher into the sky, reaching her hand up for them to come back. The lightning left her fingers within a split second, continuing even as she stopped screaming. There was only one destination.  _

  
  


_ Time passed, but the setting did not change. The desert still continued to blaze and blow hot sand over everything and across the sky in mammoth storms each afternoon. Rey was older now, not yet a woman but no longer a girl, running from her nearly broken speeder back toward the AT-AT walker she called home.  _

_ Kylo followed, compelled to by a force that pushed at his back like a strong wind. Perhaps it was, but he knew it was something else, the same Force that was showing him this vision of the woman reaching out for him now. She sat in the corner of the small home, counting every single mark that had been scratched into old, tired metal. Each day since she had been left behind on Jakku.  _

_ “They’re coming back… They’ll come back one day.”  _

  
  


_ The vision soon faded into something cooler, darker, an environment that reminded Kylo more of a tomb than a desert or a home. All he could see in the darkness was stone, black as night and smooth as glass, a floor leading down a wide corridor into the darkest recesses. He knew there was something there, someone waiting there for him at the end.  _

_ He approached, taking careful, determined steps that echoed in the chamber. As he moved, more voices began to surround him. Whispers and words he couldn’t understand, growing in number but not in volume. Kylo stopped midway through the chamber, looking up at the inky blackness.  _

_ “Who’s there,” he asked, the question echoing back at him before the whispers began again, changing from mere words into a chant. One word repeated over and over again, one he understood better than anyone alive now.  _

_ Vader.  _

_ “Vader is dead,” Kylo replied into the void, looking now toward the edge of the chamber that had begun to show itself. There was a wide, stone throne sitting under a single ray of light. Upon it, sat two, a familiar woman and an even more familiar man.  _

_ “You will sit upon my throne, boy,” the voice that had always haunted his dreams said, the sound bouncing off every surface and surrounding him entirely. “Bring the girl to me and I will give you everything.” _

* * * 

Kylo shook himself from his reverie when everything seemed to explode around him. He looked up at his surroundings and found them as whole as ever, but Rey? 

She was gone. 


End file.
